Ringo Starr & His Allstar Band

Story Courtesy of Steve Gerardi, Production Manager, Sunshine Promotions, Inc.

When I was 6 years old my parents gave my older brother John two albums, Meet The Beatles, and The Beatles Second Album for Christmas. John didn’t care for them, and I LOVED them, so he gave them to me. I played these albums front to back continuously. I even had a thought of contacting The Beatles and having them perform in the gymnasium at my Catholic grade school Christ The King in Columbus, OH. Sadly, and realistically, that didn’t happen, and it would be about 10 more years before I promoted a show with local bands.

Fast forward to the first year of Deer Creek Music Center and we booked Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. This was a very interesting show as Ringo’s band consisted of Dr. John, Billy Preston, Joe Walsh, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Nils Lofgren, Jim Keltner and Clarence Clemons. The show featured music from Ringo’s solo career and a few Beatles songs in which he sang lead vocals. Also, each of the band members performed a few of their songs. It was a night of great music!

The show sold good, but it should have sold more tickets in my opinion. Marketing a show like this was a challenge. You can only put so much content into a 60-second radio spot or into radio liners. The print advertising had quite a bit of detail and it may have been too much content. This was several years before we had the internet and way before social media.

There were many great things about this tour including the band and the road crew. The core road crew included several people that also worked with Billy Joel and still do to this day. Anybody in the concert industry would agree that working with road manager Max Loubiere, production manager Bobby “Boomer” Thrasher and Chainsaw (Rick LaPoint) always guarantees a great show day in addition to Chainsaws ongoing pranks!

The band arrived midafternoon and they were all in a good mood. They didn’t sound-check as much as they had a free-for-all jam. They improvised and had fun along with challenging each other to play various songs, especially oldies. This was as good as the show itself.

Ringo and Barbara Bach arrived shortly after the band and Ringo joined the onstage festivities. They were both very visible backstage and very approachable. As Ringo was onstage Max introduced me to Barbara. She was extremely charming and very down to earth. She is a rather tall and beautiful even without makeup. I kept thinking about the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me and the great role she played.

Shortly after that Max introduced me to Ringo Starr. I had met several famous people in my career but meeting one of the Beatles was a game changer. Several things struck me. The first is that Ringo is a bit taller than most people realize. He was friendly, personable and had a very dry sense of humor. Little did I know that within the year I would meet Paul McCartney and a few years later have both Ringo and Paul’s autograph on my original Meet The Beatles album which I treasure to this day. It was interesting as we had the show in 1992 and that was when I asked if Ringo would sign my Meet The Beatles album. By this time Paul McCartney had toured and many people asked Paul to sign Beatles albums but if they asked the same of Ringo, he would sign the backside. I was hoping that he wouldn’t do that to my album and when I presented it to him along with a few other items that we wanted him to sign. I mentioned that this was my album and he commented that it was an original and that he liked me….so he signed my album!

The concert itself was nothing short of fun and awesome. The band opened with the song “It Don’t Come Easy” and the show lasted close to 2 ½ hours. They played from a setlist, and the band improvised and extended songs a few times. I stood offstage for most of the show and was able to hear the band members talk not only between songs but at times during songs suggesting changes or let’s do this or let’s do that. Clearly the show was live and not on a computer! Joe Walsh with his great humor and hit songs definitely grabbed the spotlight at times. The last song of the show was “A Little Help From My Friends” and it was a gigantic song along. The audience LOVED this show!

I have been fortunate to see many shows and this particular show will always stand out as a personal favorite.